Union demands calls on Hamas to release Palestine TV journalist

April 14, 2017 9:07 P.M. (Updated: May 6, 2017 8:33 P.M.)

GAZA (Ma’an) -- The Palestinian journalists' union condemned the Hamas movement on Friday for the detention of a Palestinian female journalist from Palestine TV, who has been held by in custody in the Gaza Strip for two consecutive days.

The union demanded in the statement for human rights organizations to intervene to immediately release Taghrid Abu Tharifa from detention.

Gaza’s security forces detained Tharifa from her home in the town of Absan in the southern Khan Yunis district on Thursday for unknown reasons.

Meanwhile, rights groups have continued to criticize Hamas, the de facto government of the Gaza Strip, for suppressing both freedom of press and freedom of speech. In a report released by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) earlier this year, the group said 2016 saw 86 Palestinian violations against media freedoms in the West Bank, while a total of 48 violations were recorded in the besieged Gaza Strip.

However, the report highlighted that the lower number of violations in Gaza did not reflect heightened media freedoms, but was instead caused by the limited number of journalists and media centers operating in the besieged enclave.